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Collecting the Pei Cen Stele in Qing China Ming Qing Yanjiu 24 (2020) 245–278 brill.com/mqyj Collecting the Pei Cen Stele in Qing China Weitian Yan PhD candidate, Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas, USA [email protected] Abstract This article investigates three vignettes in the collecting of the Pei Cen Stele during the eighteenth century. A Han-dynasty monument in Barköl, Xinjiang, the Pei Cen Stele tells of an unrecorded military achievement against the Xiongnu in 137. I begin by discussing how court officials used this artefact to support the Qing imperial expan- sion into central Asia. The second episode identifies four major types of copies of the Pei Cen Stele—facsimiles, replicas, tracing copies, and forgeries—and examines their varied functions to the epigraphic community at the time. The final section analyses the transitional style of this inscription through calligraphers’ innovative transcrip- tions. Appropriations of the Pei Cen Stele in these political, social, and artistic contexts, I argue, pinpoint the idea of collecting as a form of invention in the Qing dynasty. Collectors invented the Pei Cen Stele as a symbol of prosperity, a cultural relic, and a calligraphy exemplar. Keywords Pei Cen Stele – epigraphy – Xinjiang – Huang Yi … People were trying to make sense of the old buildings and images they came across and they were fashioning artifacts that they hoped would help them find their own way back into history. Christopher S. Wood1 1 Wood 2008: 23. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/24684791-12340050 246 Yan ∵ Record of Pei Cen’s Meritorious Achievements 裴岑記功碑, commonly known as the Pei Cen Stele 裴岑碑, is a stone monument originally erected in the area of Barköl, Xinjiang. Seen from afar, the narrow top and wide base of the stone re- semble a standing figure and thus earned the location where it originally stood the name Shirenzi 石人子, or The Human Rock.2 The monument displays six vertical lines of archaic characters. Deeply carved into the face of the stone, this inscription presents a mixture of the seal script (zhuanshu 篆書) and the clerical script (lishu 隸書). Now held by the Xinjiang Museum in Urümqi, the engraved stone looks fragmented and eroded today. Its darkened front and damaged condition speak of the countless times that inked-fibres pads were tamped over its surface to produce circulatable rubbing images, an indication of the popularity of the inscription. The engraved text on the stele reads: In the eighth month of the second year of Han-dynasty Yonghe era (137), the prefect of Dunhuang, Pei Cen of Yunzhong, led a prefecture troop of three-thousand people to punish the King of the Huyan and others, executing members of the clan and defeating the entire army of the enemy. Eliminating the disaster of the western region and eradicating the calamity of the four prefectures [of Gansu corridor], the frontier [now becomes] governed and peaceful. When [the general Pei Cen] arrived at this place, he established a shrine at the grand lake to commended [his achievements] for ten-thousand generations. 惟漢永和二年八月， 敦煌太守雲中裴岑將郡兵三千人， 誅呼衍王等， 斬馘部眾， 克敵全師。除西域之灾， 蠲四郡之害， 邊竟艾安。振威 到此， 立海祠以表萬世。3 The inscription commemorates the military success of an unrecorded Han-dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) general Pei Cen (c. 130s) over a king of the Xiongnu in 137. Compared with other well-known inscriptions that were situ- ated in the heartland of China, the relatively remote location of the Pei Cen Stele created additional difficulty for access. However, ever since its first discovery in the eighteenth century, the Pei Cen Stele was featured in nearly every catalogues 2 Niu Yunzhen and Chu Jun, Jinshi tu, 1: 60–61. 3 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. For the original passage in Chinese, see Gao Wen 1997: 58–60. Ming Qing Yanjiu 24 (2020) 245–278 Collecting the Pei Cen Stele in Qing China 247 of stone inscriptions, and its rubbings became a desirable collectible among scholars interested in epigraphy. The narrative about the finding of the Pei Cen Stele, the propagation of its copies, and the interpretation of its unique style con- tributed to the aura of this distant Han monument. The process through which the Pei Cen Stele gained unprecedented attention from government officials, epigraphic scholars, and renowned calligraphers provides an important case to consider the politics of collecting stone inscriptions in late imperial China. Jinshi xue 金石學, often translated as epigraphy, refers to a specialized area of antiquarian scholarship that focuses on the close examination of inscribed texts on bronze vessels, stone steles, and natural cliffs. Through his vigorous collection of stone inscriptions, Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007–1072) of the Song dynasty (960–1279) used these materials to verify recorded histories and thus fulfil the Confucian goal of knowing the past.4 Scholars of the subsequent dy- nasties continued to invest in epigraphy as a form of antiquarianism, but it was not until the early seventeenth century that epigraphic study again domi- nated the scholarly lives of Chinese intellectuals. Scholars such as Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (1613–1682) travelled across China to conduct on-site investigations of ancient stone monuments. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, kaozheng 考證, or evidential scholarship, emerged as a predominant meth- odology that stresses the textual analysis of Confucian classics and canoni- cal historical documents.5 Stone inscriptions functioned as a core material of evidential scholarship because they were viewed as uncorrupted primary resources that can help verify the orthography, pronunciation, and meaning of classical texts. This trend of historical research also had an impact on artis- tic culture. Calligraphers found inspiration from early stone inscriptions and began to use these archaic forms of Chinese writing as their stylistic models. The avid search for ancient engravings began in northern China, primarily in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong provinces. Later, it expanded to southern and western frontiers, including Guangdong, Fujian, and Xinjiang. The discovery and promotion of the Pei Cen Stele was a result of the growing epigraphic cul- ture during the Qing dynasty. The present article investigates three vignettes about the collecting of the Pei Cen Stele in the political, social, and artistic contexts of eighteenth-century China. It begins by situating the discovery and representation of the Pei Cen Stele in the geopolitics of the Manchu empire. The stele was believed to be first found by the general Yue Zhongqi 岳鐘琪 (1686–1754) when he led Qing forces to fight against the Zunghar Mongols. Court officials and exiled scholars 4 For Ouyang’s collection of stone inscriptions, see Egan 1989: 371–379. 5 For discussion on kaozheng scholarship, see Elman 1984: 38–56. Ming Qing Yanjiu 24 (2020) 245–278 248 Yan framed the Pei Cen Stele in poems and imperial publications to propagandize the consolidation of Qing’s new frontier. The second episode analyses ink rub- bings of the Pei Cen Stele as the material evidence of collecting stone inscrip- tions. Through my close reading of colophons on these rubbings, I categorize four major types of copies of the Pei Cen Stele—re-engraving, authentic rub- bing, tracing copy, and forgery, all of which emerged because of the distant location of the monument. In addition, the exchange of these rubbings served as a crucial channel through which scholars and antiquarians commemorated meaningful relationships and developed specialized knowledge of epigraphy. The final section discusses the transitional style of the Pei Cen Stele through calligraphers’ innovative transcriptions. The stele epitomizes the crucial trans- formation from the seal script to the clerical script and its stylistic signifi- cance lies in the historicity of the monument. The noted eighteenth-century antiquarian Huang Yi 黃易 (1744–1801) interpreted this transitional style by highlighting the materiality of stone engraving. The scholar-official and cal- ligrapher Yi Bingshou 伊秉綬 (1754–1815) imagined the initial appearance of the inscription with his creative works of calligraphy. Each of these vignettes in the life of the Pei Cen Stele focuses on a distinctive context in which people interacted with the artefact. I argue that the collecting activities in the Qing dynasty were an inventive endeavour, through which collectors created the Pei Cen Stele as a symbol of prosperity, a relic of the Han dynasty, and a model of style. 1 Pei Cen Stele and the New Frontier Issues related to the north-western frontier had always been a serious chal- lenge to rulers of imperial China. As early as the Han dynasty, armies were mobilized to the north-western region in response to threats from non-Han regimes of central Asia. The illustrious and legendary success of Huo Qubing 霍去病 (140–117 BCE), who defeated “foreign barbarians” to defend the Han empire, has long been a Confucian image of heroic loyalism regarding the bor- der of the homeland. The Great Wall of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) is also a constant reminder of the frontier. This continuous walled fortress marked the boundary between the Han regime and the world of foreigners of central Eurasia. When the Manchu established their reign in 1644, the far west, now known as Xinjiang, was largely occupied by Zunghar Mongols. During the seven- teenth century, the Zunghar empire (1671–1760) had expansive control over Ming Qing Yanjiu 24 (2020) 245–278 Collecting the Pei Cen Stele in Qing China 249 the northern side of the Kunlun Mountains, encompassing areas from Kashgar and Yarkand (west) to Hami (east). Political and economic conflicts between the Zunghar and the Qing surfaced in the late seventeenth century. Three generations of Qing emperors, Kangxi 康熙 (r. 1666–1722), Yongzheng 雍正 (r. 1722–1735), and Qianlong 乾隆 (r. 1735–1796), employed different political tactics against the Zunghar Mongols.
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